Shady advice from a raging bitch who has no business answering any of these questions.

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On Bernie

I love Bernie Sanders, but there’s no way he’s going to win the general election (or even the primary). How do I tell people this gracefully? Or should I just keep quiet until Hillary has the nomination? Bernie is good at being an agitator, but do you think he would be a good president?

People said the exact same kind of shit about Obama eight years ago. They said Hillary had the nomination locked down and that no one in their right mind was ever gonna vote for a black freshman senator with a funny sounding name.

No one seems to remember how outlandish Obama’s campaign seemed at the time, and Bernie Sanders has considerably more momentum than Obama did a full eighteen months before the general election.

Bernie isn’t the dark horse at this point. He and Hillary are the only two Democratic candidates anyone is even talking about, regardless of whether Biden decides to run.

You sound ridiculous saying Bernie doesn’t stand a chance. Of course he does. He could easily beat Hillary if Biden steps in and siphons off the moderates, and if Bernie went up against anyone other than Jeb Bush, he would almost certainly win the presidency.

Yes, the safe bet for 2016 is still a Clinton vs Bush corporate snoozefest, but you never know. All it would really take for Bernie Sanders to be the next president is for everyone like you to simply tell people that you’re voting for him instead of telling people that he doesn’t have a chance.

And yes, I think he would be a great president.

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8 thoughts on “On Bernie”

I’d love to see it happen. The only way it will is if people like me (high earning libs) keep giving to Bernie. I donated $500 a couple months ago, before his big surge happened. I’m committed to finding $5000 if he he makes it through the primaries. It’ll hurt, but just having him in the conversation is so worth it, and having him be a real contender would be amazing.

For the first time in a long time, regular citizens have a real opportunity to vote with our dollars, even beyond what Obama’s supporters did, since Bernie has committed to not taking corporate money.

Yep, exactly. I sent many emails over several years encouraging him to run, and I started donating the day he announced. He may be old, but he is the freshest thing we’ve had in a presidential race in a long time. Or maybe Obama was fresh and Bernie is refreshing, but anyway he has my vote, and I’m prepared to argue down anyone who says he cannot win. How many stadiums is Hillary filling up right now?

I hope Bernie Sanders allies himself with the Black Lives Matter movement. They’ve gotten his attention, at least. The more racist the Republican candidates get, the more they inspire people to vote against them. Maybe I’m overly optimistic, but I believe that most Americans (liberal and conservative) aren’t viciously racist and want to change things for the better, and that would turn things in Bernie’s favor.

“All it would really take for Bernie Sanders to be the next president is for everyone like you to simply tell people that you’re voting for him instead of telling people that he doesn’t have a chance.”

I do not vote, because I refuse to legitimate the shell game. As Marx put it: “The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them in politics.”

That said, some of you may find this interesting.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/03/why-bernie-sanders-is-a-dead-end/
“Even so, while Bernie may come across as sincere about class politics, make no mistake, he is a militarist that isn’t about to challenge U.S. supremacy. He supported the ugly war on Kosovo, the invasion of Afghanistan, funding for the endless Iraq disaster as well as the losing and misguided War on Terror. He voted in favor of Clinton’s 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which expanded the federal death penalty and acted as the precursor to the PATRIOT Act.
As for Israel, Bernie has been a hawkish advocate that would never halt the $3 billion the U.S. government sends to the country every year. Last summer he backed Israel’s murderous bombing of Gaza. He’s even had some nasty words about Palestine’s right to resist. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that several former members of Bernie’s staff have also been employed by AIPAC, including Israel apologists David Sirota and Joel Barkin. His is a disgusting record. Want to change in the U.S.’s meddling in the Middle East? Bernie isn’t your guy.”